As a user, how often have you thought “I wish this web service was faster. As a CEO, how often have you said “just make it faster. Or, more simply, “why is this damn thing so slow?. This is a not a new question. I’ve been thinking about this since I first started writing code (APL) when I was 12 (ahem – 33 years ago) on a computer in the basement of a Frito-Lay data center in Dallas. MORE

Most people suck at presenting to big groups. It’s a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential employees, customers and VCs. MORE

Trading emails with a startup CEO building an iPhone app, I asked him why potential customers would buy his product. In response he sent me a competitive analysis. It looked like every competitive analysis I had done for 20 years, (ok maybe better.). And it made me sad. MORE

Office 2010 will be the end of Zoho, if we stop innovating, stop being nimble and flexible in our business model. Then again, if we stop all that, Zoho will die anyway , no Office 2010 needed to do the job. This is Part 2 of the series: 5 lessons from 150 startup pitches.??? MORE

Startups are hard. When you read the press you only read the glamorous bits. You read about Mark Zuckerberg or the guys at FourSquare, Twitter or Zynga. But that’s a bit like reading about your state lottery winner and feeling bummed out because you haven’t won despite years of trying. MORE

I’ve come to realize that I have lots of posts around startup software development scattered around in different posts. Thought it would be good to capture them in one spot and also include links to related posts from other sources. MORE

This is part of my startup advice series. This post isn’t going to be popular. I’m sure of that. That’s OK. It’s still important advice for startup founders and something that I’m passionate about. And I care more about the debate than trying to be popular. MORE

Over the last 50 years engineers have moved from building computers out of individual transistors to building with prepackaged logic gates. Then they adopted standard microprocessors (e.g. x86 , ARM.) At the same time every computer company was writing its own operating system. MORE

I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. A few people have asked me to try and define the perfect startup organization chart. I don’t believe that one exists. Every team configuration is different. But I do have more insight into understanding your startup team. MORE

Startup CEO’s can’t delegate sales and expect it to happen. Customer Validation needs to have the CEO actively involved. Here’s an example in a direct sales channel. Customer Development Diagnostics over Lunch. MORE

Startups are the search to find order in chaos. Steve Blank. At a board meeting last week I watched as the young startup CEO delivered bad news. Our current plan isn’t working. We can’t scale the company. Each sale requires us to handhold the customer and takes way too long to close. MORE

THAT America’s stockmarkets dropped by 10% in a few minutes on May 6th 2010 was worrying enough, even if they did bounce back quickly. Markets May 6th 2010Worse still was the realisation that nobody understood why or how it had happened. After pointing the finger in various directions, American authorities have settled on an unlikely culprit: Navinder Singh Sarao, a 36-year-old British day-trader they now want to extradite to face an assortment of criminal and civil charges. MORE

Odysseus resisting the Sirens. On my three year startup journey that lead to Yipit , I had over 30 other completely unrelated ideas. Each time I got the idea, I would immediately start sweating profusely for three straight hours in a ridiculous state of unbridled excitement and optimism. Sounds great, right? Not really. Those new ideas and the emotional frenzy were a serious distraction. MORE

This is the fourth part of a series on becoming your own technical co-founder. In 2008, we couldn’t find a technical co-founder for Yipit. I’m writing about how I became our technical co-founder. Hopefully, I’ll encourage other entrepreneurs with a dream but no technical co-founder options to take their destiny into their own hands. Disclaimer: If you know a great technical co-founder that wants to work with you, join them. This series is intended for everyone else. Learning Python. MORE

I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies. In December 2007, I described how I commonly take on an Acting CTO Role in a Start-up. MORE

Israel moved in the right direction in 2010, climbing 11 spots to #30. Israel was also crowned as one of the ‘Rising Starts of 2010′ along with Chile, Argentina and Iceland. C ountries are also brands. MORE

In 2010 it paid for several airfares that we would have otherwise come straight off the bottom line. Ten small business tax planning tips for 2010! Seeing as how it’s the end of another year, I thought I would take a shot at a 10 best list of my very own. MORE

I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. Most were on paper and video; 20 were invited to pitch in person. Interesting patterns emerged: Everyone makes the same classes of error. Those who avoided just one of those errors stood out in the crowd. MORE

First-Mover Advantage is an idea that just won’t die. I hear it from every class of students, and each time I try to put a stake through its heart. Here’s one more attempt in trying to explain why confusing testosterone with strategy is a bad idea. First mover advantage – great bad idea. MORE

Rob Walling generously allowed me to reprint this excerpt from his new book, "Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup" available in paperback and Kindle from Amazon and in PDF and ePub from StartupBook.net. MORE

According to the Q1 2010 report, Israeli companies managed to raise $234 million from both Israeli and foreign venture capital funds. I sraeli high tech firms have reached the lowest financial point in five years, says IVC Research in its latest press release. MORE

Family, friends, journalists, potential investors and palm readers will tell your idea is brilliant or foolish but they don’t really know. Very few ideas are clearly amazing. The success of most ideas is very much unclear. So, how can you find out if your startup idea is good or bad? MORE

Last week one of the schools I teach at invited me to judge a business plan contest. I suggested that they first might want to read my post on why business plans are a poor planning and execution tool for startups. They called back laughing and the invitation disappeared. MORE

From a PR perspective, I like to think of the internet as an ocean full of schools of fish. There’s the TechCrunch school, the NY Times school, Lifehacker school, HackerNews school and thousands of others. MORE

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. MORE

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. Here’s why. MORE

I had coffee with an ex student earlier in the week that reminded me yet again why startups burn through so many early VP’s. And after 30 years of Venture investing we still have a hard time articulating why. MORE

“ By knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist.. Book of Five Rings. I was having coffee with a former student who was complained that my idea of building a first product release with a minimum feature set was a bad idea. MORE

Israel moved in the right direction in 2010, climbing 11 spots to #30. Israel was also crowned as one of the ‘Rising Starts of 2010′ along with Chile, Argentina and Iceland. C ountries are also brands.

According to the Q1 2010 report, Israeli companies managed to raise $234 million from both Israeli and foreign venture capital funds. I sraeli high tech firms have reached the lowest financial point in five years, says IVC Research in its latest press release.

I had coffee with an ex student earlier in the week that reminded me yet again why startups burn through so many early VP’s. And after 30 years of Venture investing we still have a hard time articulating why.

Family, friends, journalists, potential investors and palm readers will tell your idea is brilliant or foolish but they don’t really know. Very few ideas are clearly amazing. The success of most ideas is very much unclear. So, how can you find out if your startup idea is good or bad?

This is the fourth part of a series on becoming your own technical co-founder. In 2008, we couldn’t find a technical co-founder for Yipit. I’m writing about how I became our technical co-founder. Hopefully, I’ll encourage other entrepreneurs with a dream but no technical co-founder options to take their destiny into their own hands. Disclaimer: If you know a great technical co-founder that wants to work with you, join them. This series is intended for everyone else. Learning Python.

“ By knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist.. Book of Five Rings. I was having coffee with a former student who was complained that my idea of building a first product release with a minimum feature set was a bad idea.

From a PR perspective, I like to think of the internet as an ocean full of schools of fish. There’s the TechCrunch school, the NY Times school, Lifehacker school, HackerNews school and thousands of others.

According to the Q1 2010 report, Israeli companies managed to raise $234 million from both Israeli and foreign venture capital funds. I sraeli high tech firms have reached the lowest financial point in five years, says IVC Research in its latest press release.

I had coffee with an ex student earlier in the week that reminded me yet again why startups burn through so many early VP’s. And after 30 years of Venture investing we still have a hard time articulating why.

Back in 1999 when I first raised venture capital I had zero knowledge of what a fair term sheet looked like or how to value my company. Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed.

I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. A few people have asked me to try and define the perfect startup organization chart. I don’t believe that one exists. Every team configuration is different. But I do have more insight into understanding your startup team.

I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. Most were on paper and video; 20 were invited to pitch in person. Interesting patterns emerged: Everyone makes the same classes of error. Those who avoided just one of those errors stood out in the crowd.

Last week one of the schools I teach at invited me to judge a business plan contest. I suggested that they first might want to read my post on why business plans are a poor planning and execution tool for startups. They called back laughing and the invitation disappeared.

I’ve come to realize that I have lots of posts around startup software development scattered around in different posts. Thought it would be good to capture them in one spot and also include links to related posts from other sources.

Odysseus resisting the Sirens. On my three year startup journey that lead to Yipit , I had over 30 other completely unrelated ideas. Each time I got the idea, I would immediately start sweating profusely for three straight hours in a ridiculous state of unbridled excitement and optimism. Sounds great, right? Not really. Those new ideas and the emotional frenzy were a serious distraction.

Startups are the search to find order in chaos. Steve Blank. At a board meeting last week I watched as the young startup CEO delivered bad news. Our current plan isn’t working. We can’t scale the company. Each sale requires us to handhold the customer and takes way too long to close.

Office 2010 will be the end of Zoho, if we stop innovating, stop being nimble and flexible in our business model. Then again, if we stop all that, Zoho will die anyway , no Office 2010 needed to do the job. This is Part 2 of the series: 5 lessons from 150 startup pitches.???

I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies. In December 2007, I described how I commonly take on an Acting CTO Role in a Start-up.

Startups are hard. When you read the press you only read the glamorous bits. You read about Mark Zuckerberg or the guys at FourSquare, Twitter or Zynga. But that’s a bit like reading about your state lottery winner and feeling bummed out because you haven’t won despite years of trying.

First-Mover Advantage is an idea that just won’t die. I hear it from every class of students, and each time I try to put a stake through its heart. Here’s one more attempt in trying to explain why confusing testosterone with strategy is a bad idea. First mover advantage – great bad idea.

Trading emails with a startup CEO building an iPhone app, I asked him why potential customers would buy his product. In response he sent me a competitive analysis. It looked like every competitive analysis I had done for 20 years, (ok maybe better.). And it made me sad.

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. Here’s why.

This is part of my startup advice series. This post isn’t going to be popular. I’m sure of that. That’s OK. It’s still important advice for startup founders and something that I’m passionate about. And I care more about the debate than trying to be popular.

In 2010 it paid for several airfares that we would have otherwise come straight off the bottom line. Ten small business tax planning tips for 2010! Seeing as how it’s the end of another year, I thought I would take a shot at a 10 best list of my very own.

As a user, how often have you thought “I wish this web service was faster. As a CEO, how often have you said “just make it faster. Or, more simply, “why is this damn thing so slow?. This is a not a new question. I’ve been thinking about this since I first started writing code (APL) when I was 12 (ahem – 33 years ago) on a computer in the basement of a Frito-Lay data center in Dallas.

THAT America’s stockmarkets dropped by 10% in a few minutes on May 6th 2010 was worrying enough, even if they did bounce back quickly. Markets May 6th 2010Worse still was the realisation that nobody understood why or how it had happened. After pointing the finger in various directions, American authorities have settled on an unlikely culprit: Navinder Singh Sarao, a 36-year-old British day-trader they now want to extradite to face an assortment of criminal and civil charges.

Over the last 50 years engineers have moved from building computers out of individual transistors to building with prepackaged logic gates. Then they adopted standard microprocessors (e.g. x86 , ARM.) At the same time every computer company was writing its own operating system.

Rob Walling generously allowed me to reprint this excerpt from his new book, "Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup" available in paperback and Kindle from Amazon and in PDF and ePub from StartupBook.net.

Startup CEO’s can’t delegate sales and expect it to happen. Customer Validation needs to have the CEO actively involved. Here’s an example in a direct sales channel. Customer Development Diagnostics over Lunch.

Most people suck at presenting to big groups. It’s a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential employees, customers and VCs.